A Season of Learning

August 8, 2024

by Fr. Simon Peter Engurait

As we prepare to enter “back to school” season, I cannot help but reminisce on my own time in school. How I long for those days of carefree life, when my only concerns were homework and recess! Our time in school is critical for the development of so many areas of our life. More than simply growing and learning academically and intellectually, we develop into the men and women whom God is calling us to be. Through athletics, music, and other extra-curricular activities, we learn about the particular gifts and charisms that God has blessed us with and how He might be calling us to use those gifts and charisms to build up His Kingdom. We learn more about the things we like and dislike and grow in our understanding of the people around us.

During my years in school, both as a child and even as an adult in the seminary, I learned many truths about myself that I would not have learned otherwise. Contrary to what I may have thought when I was a child, I can say now that I am grateful that God called me to spend so much of my life “in school.”

Many students look forward with great anticipation to graduation, when they can finally be “done with school.” They look forward to the time of their life after school, in the “real world.” But as we begin this season when so many return to the classroom, I’d like to invite us all to go “back to school,” not just those who are enrolled in an actual academic institution. The “school of life” is a school that we should always be enrolled in, because we will never truly learn all that there is to know about ourselves and the world. There is always something new, something more to discover. That’s the great beauty of the mystery of creation – it never finishes.

In the Book of Revelation, God proclaims, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). God never stops revealing new realities to us, showing us more and more the love He has for us and the great dignity with which He has endowed every person without exception. Each person He has created is unrepeatable. In all of human history, there has been another person specifically like me, or like you. And in all of human history, there never will be another person specifically like me, or like you. Each of us is remarkably unique, with particular gifts that God has given us to use and develop. The “school of life” – entering into each experience we face with faith and with confidence in our Great Teacher – allows us to discover, accept, and utilize these gifts.

It is so easy to go through life on autopilot, letting experiences pass us by without gleaning the important lessons held within each of them. As we send our children or grandchildren to school each day, or as we go to school ourselves, it could serve as a reminder to each of us that as we begin each day, it is another day of “class” in the school of life. God has crafted a lesson particularly for us to teach us that day, and we would do well to pay attention to whatever it is He would like us to learn. Our good Father knows exactly what it is that we need each day, and His lesson plans are tailored to each of us individually. So long as we stay enrolled in this school, we can be assured that we will learn more than we could ever imagine.

May this back-to-school season be a blessing to all of us – both those restarting their classes and those who are starting a new day in the school of life. God bless you all.